This invention relates to a method of culturing anchorage dependent cells, that is, cells of the type which normally must be grown as one or more layers on a substrate and cannot be grown in suspension.
Advances in cellular biology have shown that the anchorage dependent cells of various higher organisms can produce small quantities of substances having significant potential or demonstrable utility for the treatment of disease, e.g., interfereon. Such cells are also useful for research purposes.
In such cell cultures there is an ever present danger of bacterial or other contamination. Also, in most instances the quantities of the substance of interest produced by the cell cultures are very small. Since, unlike suspension cultures, anchorage dependent cells cannot be cultured to fill a volume, there is believed to be no presently existing practical method of growing the large numbers of cells required for production of significant quantities of substances of interest produced by such cells.
Currently, anchorage dependent cells such as normal fibroblasts and certain kidney and epithelial cells must be cultured on a substrate. Plastic sheets for use as substrates are commercially available. Some types of anchorage dependent cells with reproduce until the sheet is covered with a monolayer of cells and then cease multiplying. Others will continue to multiply to form one or more additional layers above the first.